Sep 15 2017
Recommended: Jason A Mullinax – “Time Being”
Time Being can’t really be claimed by any one school of music or vein of influence. The album’s DNA is encoded with strains of Olivia Tremor Control and Cluster as much as it is Todd Sickafoose and Soft Machine. But there’s a particularly revealing moment during “Outbreak Monkey,” when ephemeral passages suddenly transform into a catchy rhythmic section, and the echoes of Cyro Baptista’s 2016 release BlueFly filter on through. But it’s more than just a similar sound, and the commonalities don’t end with their murky, impenetrable mix of genres. It’s also about the process. BlueFly began as an impromptu session between three musicians while grew to include an entire army of personnel, each contributing their music from different locales, the distances bridged by the internet. This is very much how the sophomore release from Jason A Mullinax came together.
“Time Being is a collection of studio experiments that I started about two years ago,” he explained via email. “I wrote and recorded the majority of the songs in my home studio, and once I established the frameworks, I contacted other musicians to see if they’d like to help me flesh them out.”
And much like BlueFly, Time Being didn’t come together instantaneously.
“The process was slow going because no two of us were ever in the same room at any given time. In fact, most everything was done online. I’d send my friends the tracks, we’d discuss ideas via email or phone, they’d send back their new parts and I’d drop them into my arrangement. I spent several months producing the songs and finalizing the mix, and although much of the record was created virtually, we tried our best to create the illusion of us being a band all jamming in a room together.”
Mullinax achieved a certain amount of success in that regard. He displays a strong talent weaving together the various contributions. The sign of that success is how filaments of music won’t necessarily dominate a particular piece, but they resonate with such a strength that they define the song they’re embedded within. There’s the twang of guitar strums on “Metalworks” and how they hint at a possible diversion into surf guitar before becoming subsumed by dissonance. The vibraphone and marimba on “The Next Time We Fly” is an undercurrent of melody, and yet it frames every one of the bold saxophone statements in a way that reverses the draw of attention. It’s a similar effect elicited by the hazy vocal harmonies and warped effects on “Henry’s Head,” which is more noticeable for its pretty melody and sing-song presentation.
But those are just a few of the details of an album that is built upon them. It’s a recording defined not by the crash of its waves, but the way ripples along the water’s surface capture sunlight and reflect it back with an entirely new and brilliant life.
Your album personnel: Jason A Mullinax (drums, percussion, bass, harmonica, guitars, loops, effects, glockenspiel, melodica, synths, vocoder, field recordings, thumb piano, xylophone, ukulele), Dave Newhouse (tenor, soprano, alto & baritone saxes, bass clarinet, flute, alto flute, wurlitzer piano), Rich O’Meara (vibraphone, marimba, keyboards), Seth Schowalter (guitars, bass, keyboards, alto harp, piano) and guests: Henry Mullinax (additional vocals), Logan Rainard (double bass, electric bass).
The album is Self-Produced.
Listen to more of the album on the artist’s Bandcamp page.
Music from Takoma Park, Maryland.
What a cold person you must be not to fall in love with the lullaby melodies of Des Enfants. As opposed to the uneasy serenity of Temporare, this 2012 release employs a far softer touch. And this applies to those tracks that let out a roar like “Les Américains” and those that stomp their boots like “Two Days Before,” just as it does the sing-song title track. But the heart of this album is reflected in how “Les Soldats” lets linger the suggestion that the intensity could suddenly spike, but harnesses that energy, instead, to make a softly spoken melody resonate with incredible strength.
The word is that the music of Neuf Songes was destined for release on ECM Records, but it just never quite happened. A shame, really, because not only would this older material from Lapouge’s Noëtra ensemble have fit in perfectly with ECM’s output back in the 80s, it might’ve had an impact on the label’s existing stable of musicians. It has the dramatic orchestration and the introspective interludes, the prog-jazz hopscotch precision and the jazz-folk fusion that embodied a segment of the modern jazz scene of the 1980s… but Noëtra brings all of those elements together in remarkably vibrant ways. It just resonates brilliantly. And how nicely it would have sat beside ECM Records works by Eberhard Weber, Steve Tibbetts and Miroslav Vitous.
Lapouge’s newest recording has him sticking with the same trio that led to the success of Plein Air. It also reveals a clearer image for how Lapouge wants things to shake out. This music sounds crisper and rings with clarity. Revealingly, there isn’t the ebb and flow of melodic control between guitar and cello. On Plein Air, there were the “guitar songs” and the “cello songs.” That back and forth led to some intriguing moments. But the synthesis between the two instruments on Hongrois utilizes those same tools of intrigue, and focuses them through a much sharper lens, leading to some necessary cohesion.
It’s with a workman-like attitude that 
Peregrino has got a little something of everything. The motion of the music is tango and tropanka, waltz and twist, foot taps and head bops and long slow dances with someone held close. It’s music from Argentina and Mexico and the Balkans and NYC to the north and Tuscon to the south. This music is the salt of the earth and the story of the roots. There are moments when it is possible to get in sync with the surroundings, where the electric hum of The City is indistinguishable from the sound of blood flowing through veins and the heart beating like it means it. On their newest album,
Sep 18 2017
The Round-up: Each door opens to the same circle
Here is some very good new music.
Kenny Warren Quartet – Thank You For Coming To Life (Whirlwind Recordings)
There’s an impenetrable nature to this music that takes some getting used to. Some combination of composition and improvisation makes it so that the development of a song occurs like building blocks of an efficiently functional and stunningly ornate fortress. The best route to acclimation are those moments when the thick veneer falls away and an embraceable bit of melody peeks on through. There’s the beautiful dance of Noah Garabedian‘s bass and the piano of JP Schlegelmilch on “Huge Knees” and the cheerful blues generated by Warren’s trumpet and Satoshi Takeishi on drums on “Hala Hala,” and then how the quartet decides to close the album with an entire song that wears its heart on its sleeve. And when the album closes itself off? That’s a good time to appreciate the solid musicianship displayed by some of the stronger musicians on the modern scene. The solos are all well and good, but the group interactions are where this quartet shines.
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp – Amazon
Black Diamond – Mandala (Shifting Paradigm Records)
This music is best when the quartet slows things down. At the forefront of the quartet Black Diamond are the twin tenors of Artie Black and Hunter Diamond, and when they offer up gentle sighs of melody that break away and then intertwine about one another, that’s when the personality of this album reveals itself. Because it’s about more than what goes down when the saxophones have their say. The rhythm section of bassist Matt Ulery and drummer Neil Hemphill generate all kinds of chatter, and when given the room to snap into place with the shape of things, there emerges a wonderful state of unity from what initially appears to be contradicting elements.
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp – Amazon
João Mortágua – Mirrors (PortaJazz)
All kinds of interesting facets to this live set from the 2016 Guimarães Jazz fest. The quintet of saxophonist João Mortágua, trumpeter Ricardo Formoso, guitarist Virxilio da Silva, electric bassist Felix Barth and drummer Iago Fernandez cycle through a spectrum of modern jazz expressions, and give each their own quirky personality. The electricity of the live setting comes through pretty strong on the recorded medium, which is always a bonus. Plenty here to like. Also, worth nothing that Mortágua had another release over the summer, AXES, which has been recommended previously (go check it out).
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp
René Gatica Quinteto – Rana (Discos ICM)
There’s an appealing laid-back feel to this modern jazz set from the quintet of drummer René Gatica, saxophonist Andrés Hayes, guitarist Enrique Peña, pianist Nicolás Boccanera and bassist Juan Bayón. They lead out with a melody, but keep it just vague enough so that they can bend it at will during solos and not give the sense of straying far from the song’s opening notes. There’s a little narration woven into the music, and this adds some nice texture along with the interludes scattered throughout. Nothing groundbreaking here, but just plenty easy to enjoy. Also, it’s a nice glimpse into the Buenos Aires, Argentina scene.
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp
Sean Alexander Collins – Family and Friend (Self-Produced)
The album’s liner notes state that this recording session began late at night and ended early in the morning, and everything about the music backs that claim up. This is serene music that suddenly comes to life and then settles back down into a peaceful calm. There is something nocturnal about the music’s liveliness and when it gets tranquil, it’s like those moments just as the sun begins to rise. It’s Sean Alexander Collins on vibraharp, Brandon Sherman on trumpet and Josh Collins on acoustic guitar, and everything about the music gives the impression that they were locked into the creative visions of one another. A nifty release from the Reno, Nevada scene. Also, a bargain at just three bucks.
Artist site | Listen | Buy: Bandcamp
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2017 releases • 0 • Tags: The Round-Up